Tucker Carlson: Trump Is Making a Gamble
Earlier this week, Vladimir Zelensky declared his expectation that the United States will take “strong steps” to aid his country if Russia rejects the Trump administration’s ceasefire proposal.
“I understand that we could count on strong steps,” the Ukrainian Supreme Leader boasted. “I don’t know the details yet, but we are talking about sanctions and about strengthening Ukraine.”
The U.S. appears to have given Zelensky a reason to feel that way. The White House’s willingness to resume Ukrainian weapons shipments and intelligence sharing, paired with the president’s recent threat to do things “that would be very bad for Russia,” suggests that Trump is at least willing to plunge his country deeper into Eastern Europe’s war.
His thinking is likely simple. Unlike the previous president, Trump wants to end this conflict, and he sees increasing Ukraine’s leverage as the best way to bring Russia to the negotiating table. Putin would have little incentive to budge if facing a weak adversary. Trump is aiming to make Ukraine look strong to give the Kremlin a reason to make a deal. He wants them to think negotiating serves their interests.
The president should be careful. His strategy will seem brilliant if it works, but what if it doesn’t? If Putin rejects the current deal, Trump will have two options: do things “that would be very bad for Russia,” which would also be very bad for America, or do nothing, get exposed for bluffing, and look weak on the world stage.
The first scenario could play out in a few ways. First, Trump could dust off the Biden playbook, continuing to pump money and resources into the conflict without a plan to speed up its conclusion. This would deepen U.S.-Russia hostilities, drag us closer to World War III, waste the American people’s money, and get thousands more innocents killed. No thanks.
Second, he could go further than Biden and escalate the conflict by putting U.S. boots on the ground. The administration could see this as a deterrent for Putin, but the risk and American carnage would be astronomical. A direct, in-your-face hot war with the world’s most prolific nuclear power? Please no thanks.
Third, the president could avoid military engagement and funding commitments altogether and take the economic route, imposing new sanctions to try to cripple Putin’s surprisingly strong economy. This may seem like a no-downside approach, but the past three years proved otherwise. Biden’s sanctions drove Russia to become less dependent on the U.S., therefore decreasing Washington’s leverage, and led to the potentially catastrophic strengthening of the Moscow-Beijing alliance. America should do nothing to continue that trend.
None of those possibilities, the three laid out above or the president being revealed as a bluffer, would be good for anyone. Each would bring Europe no closer to peace and weaken the United States.
The White House better hope Putin accepts this deal. Things could get ugly if he doesn’t.
